While cave-like spa experiences aren’t all that novel, the Cenote Spa at newly opened Grand Hyatt Playa del Carmen on the Riviera Mexico is inspired by the eponymous, naturally-occurring freshwater swimming hole. Cenotes are unique geological formations from the Yucatan peninsula. They look like hot springs but are often the surface manifestations of extensive underwater cave systems, and are considered by many to be energy centers because of their high concentrations of minerals and nutrients.

Rendering of Imagination Playground in Brownsville by the Rockwell Group (Courtesy of the Rockwell Group)

The Rockwell Group and NYC Parks unveiled their plans last week to turn a 1.5-acre section of Betsy Head Park in Brownsville into a lush and active playground. When designing Imagination Playground, the firm looked to treehouses for inspiration. The site will feature a winding ramp that snakes around London Plane trees and connects to slides and a series of jungle gyms that spill out into an open area with sand, water, benches, and plantings.

DS+R Takes it Higher.DS+R was selected to design a new residential tower at Hudson Yards, adjacent to the third section of the High Line.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro is climbing ever higher near the High Line with their first ever skyscraper. The Wall Street Journal reports that the firm was selected by Related Development to work with the Rockwell Group on an 800 foot tall, 700 unit residential building that will play well with its architectural cousin next door. Elizabeth Diller tells the paper the architects are “very conscious of the adjacency to the High Line.” Indeed. DS+R, along with Field Operations, will be unveiling plans for the third and final section of the High Line at a community meeting tonight.
Public School 11 Auditorium 320 West 21st, RSVP to railyards@thehighline.org.

Thursday was a great night for New York showroom events. AN took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and made the rounds. Here are some highlights:

Moroso Traveling Show

Moroso celebrated the NYC launch of its traveling show commemorating 60 years of great furniture-making history. Designed by Rockwell Group, the pop-up exhibition will tour New York through November 26, then continue on to Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, and Vancouver. The show features 25 pieces from the Moroso oeuvre, many positioned on raw wood displays next to a timeline illustrated with images and drawings from the company’s archives.

There’s a tempest brewing at the Trump Soho, which isn’t towering quite so high over Manhattan these days. The Real Dealreported this week that developers behind the luxury hotel-residence, Bayrock/Sapir, have filed a lawsuit against the building’s architects, the Rockwell Group. Among the allegations are too-small bathtubs and closets that can’t fit hangers. But the fight started much earlier with a complaint from the architect.

Iron skillet meets iron fist. Some of the most striking visuals to come out of this year’s TED conference weren’t made for the stage but for the street: Jamie Oliver‘s Food Revolution truck, an 18-wheeled kitchen classroom designed pro bono by Rockwell Group, launched last week and represents just one of the outcomes of Oliver’s 2010 TED Prize wish to make kids healthier. The wish of this year’s TED Prize winner, the artist currently known as “JR,” is that people will participate in his global art project INSIDE/OUT and help paper streets with gigantic portraits of themselves. Step 1: set up photo booths that print poster size pics of conference participants–quite a surreal experience, writes Guy Horton for Good.

“It doesn’t seem like it, but everything connects with each one perfectly,” said Gabrielle Sunderland, 12, squinting happily toward the hot July sun. Around her were piles of weather- and germ-resistant foam blocks in sundry shapes and sizes. The blue pieces are the signature element of David Rockwell’s Imagination Playground, which opened Tuesday on Burling Slip near the South Street Seaport.